{"id":703,"date":"2015-12-09T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.autoraptor.com\/blog\/why-your-dealership-email-marketing-efforts-arent-working"},"modified":"2024-10-14T15:12:19","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T19:12:19","slug":"why-your-dealership-email-marketing-efforts-arent-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autoraptor.com\/blog\/why-your-dealership-email-marketing-efforts-arent-working\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Your Dealership Email Marketing Efforts Aren&#8217;t Working"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Do your dealership email marketing strategies have low click rates and poor \u00a0conversions? Learn why your efforts aren&#8217;t working and ways to fix them<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<p>Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to drive revenues and re-engage with customers. It\u00a0has continued to change and adapt with the needs of consumers, allowing it stay prevelant in a fast-paced digital landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the rub: your customers&#8217; inboxes are saturated with promotional content. Due to the overload, they have developed a more selective process for opening, reading, and engaging with emails.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mce-hs-more\" style=\"height: 20px !important;\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">Therefore, car dealership email marketing needs constant updates; how you catch your reader&#8217;s attention today might not work tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>If you are looking to learn the basics of effective emailing, explore these top reasons your dealership email marketing is not working, and let us tell you how to fix them.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Big mistakes car dealers make with emails<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>1. Emails sound, look, and read like a robot (or human clone)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A big problem is not writing in a personal, one-on-one tone. Customers and leads want to develop connections with real people at your dealership. They\u00a0want to feel like a priority.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re sending automated emails through a CRM, here&#8217;s how to make your emails more personable:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Address your reader by her first name.<\/li>\n<li>Write as if it were a one-to-one correspondence.<\/li>\n<li>Tell a quick story. Focus on what she might be experiencing and how you can help.<\/li>\n<li>Craft the email based on her behavior. Does your system show\u00a0she has been searching for a specific car in the inventory? Has she downloaded or viewed content about a specific topic?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>2. Emails are focused on selling products, not delivering value to the customer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When promoting a special discount or financing offer, make sure the content is focused on the the reader: her needs, wants, desires, pain points, interests, and behaviors.<\/p>\n<p>All dealership email marketing efforts can benefit from understanding one thing: <strong>people don&#8217;t care about your inventory, they care about themselves<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Most dealerships will list a vehicle&#8217;s\u00a0features: safety, gas mileage, finance options, extended warranty, etc.\u00a0But how can you tell which feature is important to each prospective customer?<\/p>\n<p>Ask yourself: what can I offer readers that is useful? How can I develop trust? How can my dealership email marketing deliver great value? Then, show value, not specs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Contains too many links and calls to action<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.autoraptor.com\/blog\/the-best-methods-for-selling-cars-online-and-making-more-dollar-signs\">Marketing-savvy car dealers<\/a>\u00a0may believe more links equals more clicks. But for emails, having less is more. You want to craft each email with one specific goal in mind: what action do you want readers to take?<\/p>\n<p>Maybe it&#8217;s responding to a survey, downloading content, scheduling an appointment, or watching a promotional video. Whatever the case, make sure it&#8217;s easy for the reader to understand.\u00a0Don&#8217;t bog her down with too many options. Direct her to one specific action.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Subject lines are spammy\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t try to gain your reader&#8217;s attention with capitalized words and exclamation points. Many email hosts have spam filters to catch specific words, phrases, symbols, and formatting.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an example of a spammy subject line: &#8220;Amazing deal ends soon!! Just for YOU!! Click here &#8212;&gt; Now!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>These &#8220;click bait&#8221; subject lines were once very effective. In today&#8217;s world, not so much. People have become wiser to dealership email marketing (and every other business, too).<\/p>\n<p>What works today is personalized, value-driven, easily digestible subject lines. Here is an example:\u00a0&#8220;Eric, give me 5 minutes, and I&#8217;ll lower your payments today.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. Emails don&#8217;t target a specific audience\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dealerships often send every person on their email list the same message.\u00a0In the marketing, PR and advertising world, that method is called &#8220;spray and pray.&#8221; Aim one message at a bunch of different people, and see what sticks.<\/p>\n<p>Breaking that email list into smaller segmented lists and understanding\u00a0their specific needs will help produce <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autoraptor.com\/blog\/6-auto-dealer-digital-marketing-secrets-leading-dealerships-know\">more effective marketing<\/a>. Take a look at where your reader sits within with your sales funnel, then ask:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How old is she?<\/li>\n<li>How often does she interact with your dealership by email, social media, or in person?<\/li>\n<li>What steps has she taken to view your inventory?<\/li>\n<li>What specific vehicle did she spend time researching?<\/li>\n<li>How much time has passed since her last purchase?<\/li>\n<li>Where does she live?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All of these questions better define the audience you are targeting. Once all of these questions are answered, you will have a fuller picture of the reader and know what groups she fits into. Then you&#8217;ll understand how to pitch the perfect email content.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Do the ground work and automate your efforts\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>To develop an effective dealership email-marketing campaign, you need to do the ground work and find what works. Test your results with specific groups and record which emails perform best. Once you create a few emails that work well, you can automate them and update as neccessary.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you have any email marketing tips to add? Share your comments below or show us with an email of your own!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"hs-cta-image-381107-b86e5a21-3e44-408a-847e-83f7eed9acd7\" class=\"hs-cta-img hubspot-cta-button hs-mce-draggable hs-cta-placeholder-image hs-cta-temp-img\" src=\"\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/381107\/b86e5a21-3e44-408a-847e-83f7eed9acd7.png\" alt=\"\" data-hs-img-pg=\"b86e5a21-3e44-408a-847e-83f7eed9acd7\" data-mce-placeholder=\"true\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do your dealership email marketing strategies have low click rates and poor &nbsp;conversions? Learn why your efforts aren&#8217;t working and ways to fix them <\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nEmail marketing is one of the most effective ways to drive revenues and re-engage with &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","rank_math_title":"","_aioseo_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-auto-dealer-marketing"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autoraptor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autoraptor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autoraptor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autoraptor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autoraptor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.autoraptor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autoraptor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autoraptor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autoraptor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}